No Roads Left
by SimpleConfusion
Summary: Haven't you ever felt like you don't belong? A decepticon is feeling lost and he has a choice to make. Will his new charges help him find some peace, or will they be thrust into an endless war with no hope of coming back. Read and review please!
1. Awakening

**Author Notes:** This is my first piece of writing. I don't know much about the Transformers universe, so I decided to start a story of original characters. I have another story I'm starting and it's about OCs and more known characters (like Optimus and Ratchet and all them). Another note on uploading is I might not upload for a few weeks. No there's nothing going on right now, I just suck at keeping myself interested in things.

I know that the title is the name of an awesome Linkin Park song, and no offense to LP, but this wasn't something I planned beforehand. It's not a songfic, whatever that is. I just like the title. It seems to fit my characters.

Okay, please read and review this story. If this looks familiar, it's because I previously put this up a few days ago, but I wasn't pleased with it, so I redid it. Please, please, please... I want critiques on my grammar and writing style, as well as the normal reviews everyone writes. I just really want to know if I should try my hand at this or give up in a fiery downfall of disgrace.

I don't own Transformers. I just own my characters. And I'm the mayor of the imaginary city of Hale, NV.

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><p>Transformers No Roads Left<p>

Awakening

Above Hale, Nevada was what could only be described as the stars falling from the heavens. Three meteors were hurtling towards Earth at an incredible speed. The horizon grew darker as the fiery projectiles flew at an angle. They lit up the small city as they headed for the hills outside of town. The closer the meteors came to crashing, the brighter they became. You almost couldn't look at them without suffering from their awesome might. The objects fell through patches of clouds and night, the billows of grey wreathing the meteors momentarily before they shot out of the veil and rocketed ever closer to the Earth.

Finally the three rushing objects plunged into the dry desert ground, forming large trails that ended with deep, smoking craters. Dirt clouds rose from the impacts, choking the area with dust, making it impossible to breathe easily. Cascading embers rained down on the surrounding plants, the air so dry that they caught fire quickly. A desert tree went up in flames and a few bushes caught and quickly became a pile of cinders. After a few minutes passed, the wind blew away the majority of the flames from one meteor to reveal a hulking mass climbing out of the crater with a limp. It shook itself and peered around. Its twin blue optics flashed as it looked at what happened.

When the glow from the full moon shone upon the body, you could see the shape was humanoid in appearance, but it reflected light as if it was metallic, and you could hear the _stamp, drag, click_ of its injured legs as it fled for cover. It shuffled passed what used to be a running muscle car, but now the hood sits open with an empty engines housing and its frame is up on cinder blocks. The being climbed over the hillside, leaving rivulets of pebbles and chunks of rock crumbling down to the flat ground, and it slid down the embankment on the other side, out of view of the dark city. Not that anyone was awake to see it at 2:30 A.M.

At the site of another crash, a being rose out of the crater and glanced at its surroundings with a trio of crimson optics, burning the night like pits of fire in a cave. The trees that had caught on fire were now just skeletal remains. The ground was cracked from the dry air pulling the moisture out, and the trail from the thing's shell formed a small hollow where rain water would pool soon enough. It climbed out of the hole with a sickening metallic screech as its foot claw stabbed into a dusty, faded green pickup truck. It ripped the vehicle off its appendage, tossing the truck a little ways until it crashed, landing on its fuel tank. As the vehicle blew up with an explosion, it stepped toward the hills wincing with chagrin.

Before it could leave though, the last meteor began stirring. The other being rose then, and it made a mechanical grinding, almost like a cough as it sucked in a large amount of dust from the craters, as well as smoke from the truck fire. After its coughing subsided, it turned toward the city, glancing at what they had crashed next to, and, changing its hand into some kind of flickering red weapon, started for the buildings. Ruthlessness was shining in the deep ruby, twin optics as they focused on the first target. The other form, anticipating the actions of the bigger being, grabbed the shoulder of the creature and pulled it away.

After a few seconds of its own pulling the other way, and a few clicks and whirs that sounded a lot like computers talking to each other, it began trudging off on it's own, muttering as it followed the smaller being. They soon disappeared behind the hills to hide from the natural inhabitants, and as they climbed, debris and stones tumbled down the hillside. As smaller rocks and stones puddled at the bottom of the hills, the larger rocks caught the lips of the impact trails and rolled slowly down the engraved dirt path. Stopping in the craters formed by the meteors, it would look like the craters were formed by a landslide. No one was awake though, as it was still some time before 3 A.M., so people had nothing to worry about.

_Yet... _

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><p>The white curtain was pulled to the side and tied to the hook by a string, revealing a short, thin blonde girl, her head tilted up to face the rays of light that shone on her face, lighting up her slight smile. The girl stared at the window with an unwavering gaze, probably burning her retinas in the process, trying to determine the best method to get the grey, plaster like splotches off their window. She finally decided on using multiple window cleaners, a paint scraper, and an industrial strength solvent, as well as calling the fire department and using their fire hose to blast the dried toilet paper and egg yolks from last Halloween away.<p>

She turned around and, with a wide smile on her face, grabbed the pink spray bottle they use to water the potted flowers on the balcony, and proceeded to walk over to the couch. As her feet crossed the pale grey carpet that probably had more stains than clean floor left, she stood next to the faded pink couch with the bundle of sheets on top, vaguely resembling a human shape. The spray bottle poised directly over the part of the lump lying on a pillow, she giggled slightly as she remembered how angry this made the lump. "Don't you dare Olivia." A tired, feminine voice warned, as the owner of the voice pulled the sheets down over her face, her shoulder length, straight, blonde hair framing her cheeks. "Well I wouldn't have to if you woke up on time like a normal human." Olivia said, putting the spray bottle down and, walking over to the small coffee table in front of the couch, she grabbed the plate sitting on top, a half eaten sandwich and a few carrot sticks still making a valiant, but futile attempt to not get noticed.

"Honestly, do you know how gross you are?" She said as she carried the plate to the sink and, opening the cabinet under the sink, threw the food in the garbage. Placing the plate in the sink, she pattered back into the living room and sat down on the edge of the coffee table. "What time is it?" The girl still on the couch asked, although now she was sitting right side up with the sheets pulled up to her neck. "What? No 'good morning' or 'how do you do?' Just straight to 'what time is it?'" Olivia stated, imitating the other girl's tired voice. "I mean we used to quote movie lines that fit our mood. And we used to stay up for hours and talk about boys, movies, boys, music, and did I forget to mention boys? Yeah, no. Now I can't get a stupid 'good morning'. Honestly Hannah, if you weren't my best friend, I don't see how I could put up with you." The short blonde girl said in a breathless rush, and taking a long, shuddering breath, she settled down with a grin on her lips.

"Okay. Good morning Olivia. What time is it?" Hannah asked, her face slipping on a mask of cheerfulness before she resumed her natural bored, tired face. "See. That wasn't so hard was it? You should've just started with that, and then you wouldn't have wasted a minute. Have you heard you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar? I have, but I don't know why you would want to catch flies. They're disgusting, and they're bugs for fuc-" Olivia spouted, but then Hannah interrupted her ramblings. "Have you seen my favorite purple T-shirt?" She asked, not feeling really comfortable sitting in front of her best friend, in only her underwear. "Oh, uh, I think I used it to get a date. It's probably in my room, don't move." Olivia answered, before she got up and sped to her room. "No! I thought I would prance around and sing 'YMCA'." Hannah yelled, blushing at the thought of her actually doing that.

Olivia was already dressed in her professional, white; button up, long sleeve shirt and her black capri pants that exposed her shins and the small white socks and white sneakers. This was her usual job attire, along with the apron that said 'Hot Cuts'. It was a beauty salon that gave pretty good service. Olivia worked there in the day and looked online the rest of the day to find a night job. While Olivia was gone, Hannah leaned forward, making sure to keep the sheets wrapped around her body, and grabbed the small, silver, and diamond shaped earrings off the edge of the coffee table, avoiding the splintered edge where the two girls bumped the table against the stairwell when they were bringing it up. Putting the jewelry in her earlobes, Olivia came back in the living room. Empty handed.

"Where is my shirt? Who took it? Whoever it was, they will pay." Hannah said fury in her voice as she tried staring into the wall hard enough to melt new holes next to the ones caused from previous tenant's fists. "I'm sorry." Olivia blurted out, actually too terrified to speak more than two words. "What did you do? Where's my shirt?" Hannah asked, repeating the question while trying to make her friend spontaneously combust. "I-I spilt cola on it and I threw it in the hamper. The good news is it's at the dry cleaners as we speak, the bad news is we have no more cola left." Olivia apologized, her voice rising and her hands flying in front of her face.

"What are you doing?" Hannah asked, her voice filled with amusement and a little anger. "I'm protecting myself from the awesome fury you obviously can't control." Olivia said, smiling and dropping her hands back down when she noticed Hannah wasn't moving. "Well, seeing as I'm in my underwear, I don't plan on dishing out 'awesome fury' anytime soon, until I get clothes on." She said, a little angrily. "Can you get me a bra and a tank top please?" Hannah asked, as she leaned forward and reached for her blue jeans. She watched Olivia walk to the door to the apartment coat closet, but because her staying there, they call it Hannah's closet.  
>"Okay. What do I have to do today?" Hannah said, pulling the jeans up her legs. "I have to get to the yard. Then get back here and get ready for real work and then leave. When I get back I'll head to that dry cleaner on the way and grab our stuff." She started listing things, her fingers popping up to count them off. "Wait! There was something else I had to do." She said, sitting up to pull the jeans tight, her sheet still wrapped around her torso, and grabbed her blue brush off the floor. Pulling the brush through her blonde, shoulder length hair, she couldn't remember what else she had to do.<p>

"What do I have to do today?" Hannah screamed, tilting her face up towards the ceiling. "I don't know, but I didn't know you were religious. Maybe you joined in your sleep? Whatever it is, I don't think He answers you unless you've been His for like, a year or something." Olivia said, giggling slightly while she walked over with a White bra and a white tank top in her hands, as well as a black purse and a red drawstring backpack slung over her shoulder. "I'm not religious, I just can't think of my errands today. Whatever, I'll think of it later and do it then." Hannah said, pulling the clothes over her head and onto her back.

As Hannah finished getting dressed, Olivia went to the window again. Looking out at the apartment parking lot, she watched as a short, bald man walked in a small circle, glancing at bits of glass scattered on the ground. He kept muttering as he ran around and then he would stop and look to the spot again. With anger in his eyes and incredulousness in his voice, he would yell at the spot of glass over and over, saying "I left it right here! I left it right here!" It got to be so bad that people started coming over when they left for work, just to see what was up. He would turn on them with venom in his eyes and hate in his voice and accuse them of stealing it. They would say otherwise and nervously tell him it was fine, that it was probably insured, but he would just yell at them even more.

"Hey Hannah come here, Mr. Kenny's car got broken into and stolen." Olivia said, her grin wiping away any sincerity she might have felt for the man. Hannah got up and joined her best friend at the window. They laughed as they watched the grown man throwing a temper tantrum as if he was three years old and he wanted to go to the carnival. He kept yelling and screaming "It was right here!", while he glared at the people that were slowly backing up, like that would bring it back. Olivia dropped her purse and Hannah's backpack on the floor and walked over to the counter and grabbed her strawberry pop tart that she had heated up ten minutes ago. Breaking it in half, she handed the other piece to Hannah, and they began eating.

"Thanks. I really should wake up earlier huh?" Hannah said, knowing she always relied on her best friend and roommate to do what she herself should do to get ready. "Yeah, definitely! I can't be here forever to wake you up. I might grow old and move to Florida." Olivia said, making both girls laugh and almost choke on the food. "Yeah, no. I'll get it together by then, I promise." Hannah said, taking another bite and giggling as she watched Mr. Kenny hop up and down in front of a heavy set red haired woman. "I wonder who did it." She said as she stared at the twinkling bits of glass on the ground down below. "Probably some drug addicted pathetic man. Why are you asking anyway?" Olivia asked, glancing at her friend's face. "No reason, it's just interesting I guess. I thought he might be hot!" She replied, laughing at her friend's face scrunched up in disgust. Hannah was actually asking because she had her own secrets that would probably line up perfectly with the thief's life.

Ever since Hannah's mom left Hale, Nevada and Hannah's life for some guy, Hannah had to drop out of school to look for a job to pay the house payments. When she realized she couldn't pay it off even with the job she got, she sold the house for next to nothing to the bank and moved in with Olivia. After Olivia graduated at 18, she moved here and it's where she's been for almost a year. With Olivia's parents paying the low rent every other month, Olivia and Hannah can afford food and utilities with their paychecks. Olivia works at 'Hot Cuts' fulltime and Hannah works at a 24 hour video rental store fulltime. The older couple who own and run the store can't operate the automated DVD box that lets you rent for only one night, so Hannah has to operate that for them, along with normal work duties like restocking and sweeping. They pay her a generous wage because they care deeply about a 16 year old whose mother skipped out and left her to fend for herself.

It's Hannah's other 'job' that she hates, but needs to do it for her friends. It's not a real job, but she works at a chop shop, where she helps steal cars off the street and brings them in to find out whether they can sell it or chop it up for parts. She joined so she could help her friend and keep him safe, but now if she quits and walks away, the boss will find her and make her come back, or worse. So she heads over to the auto junkyard everyday and works there for a while until it's time to come home and change to get to the video store. After that she only gets about seven hours of sleep before it all starts over.

Now at 8:40 A.M., she had to start heading there to meet up with Jerome on the way. "Olivia, hurry up. We need to leave now." Hannah yelled at her best friend, even though they were two feet from each other. "Ow! Why? I thought we were friends and you come and blow apart my ear drums like you need to break the sound barrier. Just, why?" Olivia asked, her bottom lip jutting out and quivering before she screwed up her face in recognition as she saw the white clock on the wall. "Oh you're right. Come on. You should've said something earlier." Olivia remarked turning and walking to the fridge. "We just had breakfast you moron." Hannah said, her eyes peeking past her knee as she bent over to tie the black and white tennis shoes she had pulled on.

"I know that, but you get to come back home in five hours. I have to stay at the salon for 9 hours to make up for missing an hour on Monday. Remember I had the doctors' appointment for that _thing_." Olivia said, holding her hand up to her mouth as she tried to whisper, but it just came out a little less loud. That thing was just a beauty mark on the left side of her neck and it wasn't even dangerous. "I need to grab some food for lunch and then we can go. Can you grab my MP3 player and my work pins please?" She said as she bent at the knees and somehow fit her small frame completely in front of the fridge.

Hannah walked over to the small, light colored table by the T.V. and opened a drawer to reveal an assortment of clothes pins with a circle of metal that said inspirational things on them. She grabbed a few and closed the drawer back up, and grabbed the black MP3 sitting on the corner. Walking over, Hannah noticed the red light on the answering machine was blinking and she started walking over to play the message, but then she noticed the digital time readout on the little window of the machine. "Hurry up Olivia. It's 8:43 already! I'll be so late that Anthony will fire me." She begged her face pleading as she stared at her friend.

"I thought you said this was for lunch? You have a piece of lettuce in your mouth." She said, her voice accusing and speculating. "I'm just making a sandwich and I didn't need a whole hear of lettuce now did I? Plus I like the taste. It really wakes me up and invigorates me." Olivia said, dropping the lettuce on a paper plate on the counter, along with everything else she grabbed from the fridge. She unwound the bread bag and pulled two slices out, and wrapping the tie around it again, she laid it next to the other items. "Besides, your boss won't care if you're five minutes late. He hardly pays you enough anyway. You could probably walk out ten minutes later and he'll still expect you to come in the next day. I mean if I had a boss that lenient, I wouldn't hesitate to go to the movies, or go find myself a nice boy to hang out with." Olivia said, not noticing the grimace on Hannah's face as they discussed her 'boss'.

As Hannah stared at the assorted sandwich makings, her mind still echoing with the words from her friend, she was forced to think about her other 'job'. Olivia had no idea that Hannah worked at a chop shop, just that she does something at the junkyard. Ever since Hannah first moved in to her best friend's apartment, she has put herself on thin ice. She won't let Olivia find out what Hannah does at the yard for three reasons. One was because it would ruin their friendship and mess everything up. The second reason for not telling her friend was because Hannah had gotten arrested for grand theft auto a while back, right after she started working for Anthony Hughes.

She had just picked a nice Mercedes Benz and started driving to the yard with it, when the red and blue roof lights of a police issue Dodge Charger lit up behind her. She was taken downtown and put in the jail. She was there for three days until Jerome came by with the bail money and fake guardianship forms since she was only 16 years old. She was still on parole though, so she had to be careful. The last reason to not tell Olivia was because she has no where else to go and she's afraid of ruining that. "Yeah, no. He would probably forget me for the day and I could go to the salon and hang with you." She said, glancing at Olivia and silently praying that Olivia was too absorbed in making the sandwich that she wouldn't notice the long pause. When she looked back down, Olivia was just putting the top piece of bread on the sandwich.

"Okay, here. Put this stuff away while I use the bathroom. Oh give me my MP3 and pins." Olivia said, stuffing the sandwich into a Ziploc sandwich bag. Hannah handed the things to the shorter girl and turned to start putting food away. She noticed that when she put the food away, there was a half eaten plum in a sandwich bag. There was also a banana, a can of grape soda, and a few slices of pepperoni pizza from last nights leftovers. They only had the rest of this food and the few cans in the cupboard until next week when they both got paid. They could make this last, right?

She put everything away and made a mental note to write a list next time. Whenever they go to the store, they end up not getting necessities, like milk for cereal and butter for toast, but they just grab cereal and cola. She closed the door and glanced at the sink, full of plates and bowls. She wrote a reminder to wash those when she got home from the yard, and then she stuck it to the door of the cupboard for next time she went to grab a bowl. She checked her self in the mirror above the sink and noticed the bags under her eyes, not really too dark yet, but she knew she should get some things settled soon.

Hannah never thought of herself as overly pretty, but she knew that some guys liked her and would stare at her, what with her cute button nose and her blue eyes. She has shoulder length, straight blonde hair and her skin is lighter than most girls around, even though she's lived in Nevada for almost ten years. She weighs about average for a 16 year old girl with a height of 5 and half feet. She has a slightly muscular body that helped her out when she was on the track team. She never thought of herself as the most beautiful girl though. Yeah, no. Olivia has her beat in that department. The girl was walking clothes commercial. She always knew just what to wear and she never seemed clumsy like Hannah was sometimes.

Noticing Olivia leaving the bathroom, Hannah took in the features that made guys drool over her and trip over their own feet when she was around. She had long, wavy blonde hair and the beautiful tan skin to help her blend into the crowd here. She didn't especially have any muscle, but she was a short, thin 18 year old girl that measured just north of 5 feet and weighed a little less than average. She often didn't notice that guys would fawn over her, but when she did, she made sure they worked for it. She could probably make a guy pay for water from a water fountain if she wanted to. Hannah never told Olivia that she was a little insecure about her own body compared to Olivia's, but she has never really wanted to. And now with things in Hannah's life going nowhere quickly, she didn't need more pity from her best friend just because she didn't think she could measure up.

Hannah knew Olivia would never make her feel that way on purpose, but sometimes she just felt that way and she couldn't shake it for a while. It was almost like she knew that things weren't going right, but everyone was saying it would, even though she knew otherwise. Seeing Hannah staring at her, Olivia asked her "What? Do I have too much makeup on or what?" "No, I was just thinking about things." Hannah said, shaking her head and she read the pins that Olivia had pinned to her apron. One said 'What's goin' on?' The other ones were just as random, but one did actually have to do with her job. 'I'm hair for you!' it said, and Hannah giggled at it. "Yeah it's pretty funny." Olivia said as she walked over and grabbed her purse and Hannah's bag. "You can start downstairs while I get my wallet and keys." Olivia said, tossing the red drawstring bag to Hannah. "Okay." Hannah said, turning and leaving the apartment.

Olivia put the MP3 headphones in her ears and turned on a loud pop song and went to her room. Suddenly the phone started ringing and Olivia came into the living room and went to the side table. She was singing the chorus to the song as she reached her hand out to the bowl of peppermints and plucked one and put it in her mouth. She was completely deaf to the world as the phone kept ringing. Finally the answering machine played the message as Olivia opened the front door and left, closing it behind her.

"Hey, you've reached Hannah Parker and... hey, you want to come do this Olivia?" Hannah's recorded voice asked. "No, I think you're doing great. Now just take it from the last line and wait for the academy award to come in the mail." Olivia's recorded voice said and then she laughed. "Uh-huh, yeah, and Olivia Terrence. Just do what you do. Bye." The machine played and then the low tone buzzed. "Hi miss Hannah Parker. This is Officer Mark Louis. I just wanted to remind you to come to the station to confirm you're still in the city and that you're not violating parole. We need you to get here before 5 o'clock tonight or else you will officially be violating the law. This is the third time we have had to reschedule, so we can't hold off this meeting anymore. Bye, and have a pleasant day." The officer said with a stern, but kind tone, and with a final _beep_, the machine shut off.

Lying on the floor hooked to the wall was Hannah's silver flip phone. The cell phone suddenly vibrated on its silent setting and the little screen read HPD and a picture of a doughnut lit up the display. One minute later, the phone stopped shaking and the light slowly faded until it was just a dot of radiance in the tiny apartment corner. Finally it blinked out of existence with a flicker that, if you didn't know any better, looked like a blue eye burning closed for the last time. And sometimes, when you least expect it, there's more than meets the eye.

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><p><strong>Author Notes:<strong> I hope I hear from many of you and I hope you guys enjoyed this. Actual Transformers will show up in the next chapter, but not with humans. I want to show my character's personalities, as well as their own problems, before I freak them out with Cybertronians.

I hope you guys review. It's really important to know if this is worth any praise.

Alright, now I have to start on the next chapter, but it won't be up for at least a week.  
>Bye, Simple Confusion, Simple, or just Con.<p> 


	2. Priorities

**Author Notes:** I have this new chapter up. I hope you guys like it better than my first one. I'm sorry about updating later than I said I would. I've just been having to get off the computer before I can really get into the right frame of mind.

Please, please, please... I want critiques on my grammar and writing style, but don't be discouraged from putting whatever you want. I haven't given up, but I do still want to know if this is good or bad.

I still do not own Transformers, just my characters and the city/town of Hale, NV.

P.S. see if you can find the Linkin Park and Michael Bay mentions in the beginning.

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><p>Transformers No Roads Left<p>

Priorities

In the past few years, Cybertronians had begun laying claim to Earth as a safe haven. Both factions had fought hard and both times the Autobots, with the help of human forces, had won, keeping the planet's organics safe once more. Now the few Decepticons who were left online were hiding out while the others joined them to continue the fight. More recently, it had been a few hours since the Cybertronians fell from space, being brought to Earth to help their factions, and now the Decepticons had two more to add to their ranks on Earth, with a possible third.

When they had come across the intoxicated human, Painsplitter had begun powering up his blasters and he was in the middle of aiming when Tripwire grabbed his arm and aimed it up higher. The red plasma bolts launched into the night, lighting up the public park they were at. The human suddenly threw the brown bottle he was drinking from and he ran. "**What'd you do that for? Now he's getting away."** Painsplitter whined, his outrage starting to sound like a fragging sparkling temper tantrum. **"Shut up Painsplitter. We didn't need to deactivate him, and you know that."** Tripwire said as he started to walk off toward the desert where they had come from.

The moon was bright in the sky, illuminating the two mechs and the world around them. It was still early in the morning, a little after three o'clock A.M. The sun was nowhere near rising, and the sky glittered with a thousand suns. The street lights were still on and burning with the neon haze that ran them. The only noises that could be heard were dogs baying at the moon, sprinklers making there automated sweep across lawns, and the occasional car alarm that activated when nothing touched them. The only people on the streets were the drunken party goers and the homeless people, who were already well on their way to drowning in alcohol.

So far they had seen more people than they had expected and they had been seen by that one human, and almost countless others besides. Tripwire felt it was safer to hide from humans at the spot where they had originally landed on this planet. There seemed to be fewer inhabitants on the outskirts of this small city than there were farther in. But when they finally got back, there was what appeared to be the authority for this city parking by the road. The man was stepping out of his vehicle and walking over to the craters the three Cybertronians left when they landed.

As the human stood on the lip of one of the craters, he stared at the rocks and rubble. He reached his hand up to his collar and gripped the small radio. Turning up their audio sensors, Tripwire and Painsplitter were able to hear the man. "We have some landslides over here, out by the abandoned iron factory. I suggest we get the crane and grab the rocks out. Then we can take it from there. Bye Nancy." The authority figure said as he backpedaled and turned around. As he started walking back to the cruiser, he stopped and stared at the desert. **"What is he doing now? Can't we just deactivate him already?"** Painsplitter grumbled, his shoulder cannon whirring as he prepared for an unneeded fight. **"The human appears to have noticed the burns and damage from the atmospheric fires from our shells. And no we cannot deactivate him."** Tripwire said with an edge in his voice for authority. Doing a quick search for 'landslide' on the human's primitive world wide internet, he found something that stopped his annoyance at Painsplitter instantly.

**"Scrap, that's not good."** He said as his grip tightened on the metal wall of the iron factory. **"What is it? Can we deactivate him now?"** Tripwire never understood the need for his brethren to constantly kill and destroy. Why was so much energon and blood spilt for nothing, but something that happened many, many years ago? It didn't make any sense to Tripwire. If they could just find out what the original problem was, they could easily reach a resolution that achieved peace. But only the Autobot Prime and Tripwire's own leader Megatron knew what that long forgotten indiscretion was. **"The human knows that a landslide didn't make the burns."** Tripwire whispered more to himself than his partner, sure it was so low that Painsplitter couldn't hear it, but upon hearing the mech's next sentence, he guessed wrong. **"Finally we get to destroy something!"** The Decepticon weapon's specialist shouted out, both in the comm. link and out loud.

Tripwire stared in horror as the human authority figure looked in their direction. The man was scanning the darkness, a mask of determination set on his face. He suddenly reached down and released the catch of the holster for his handheld projectile weapon. He pulled it out and aimed it with both hands at the abandoned iron factory. "Hey you hoodlums, I know you had fun with fireworks, but you better come out and show me your faces." The human said, his voice steady and confident, but Tripwire could hear the man's heart thumping erratically in his chest from fear. **"What's the pathetic organic talking about?"** Painsplitter muttered quietly as Tripwire searched for the terms on the internet.

**"He thinks we're unruly sparklings causing trouble with incendiary devices meant for celebration."** Tripwire said with a hint of amusement in his voice. **"Why is this so funny Swingrig? I am not a sparkling and you know it."** Painsplitter growled. **"It's just amusing that he thinks we can't handle him in a battle. And I'm not Swingrig, I'm Tripwire."** He clarified his optics focusing as he thought about Painsplitter's steadily growing processor glitch. Ever since they had lost Swingrig in a battle with some Autobots, Painsplitter had been referring to his partners at the time as him, and he would even mutter under his breath, recounting events as if the warrior were still here. It honestly worried Tripwire to the point of wondering when Megatron was going to deactivate him. But he calmed himself with the fact that Starscream was by far more glitched and he was still online.

Tripwire abruptly stopped his thought process as he noticed the human wasn't standing ready for a fight, but rather he was talking into the radio again. "Yeah, this is Buck again. Hey Nance, I thought I should let you know that some kids have been out here lighting fireworks. Maybe they started the landslide?" The man said as he holstered the handgun. "Yeah, I got this. I'll just call over to the department and tell them they need the crane and dirt trucks out here. See ya in a few." The authority figure said as he walked back to the vehicle and got in. Watching the car drive off down the highway, Trip Turned toward Painsplitter and stared at him.

**"Come on, we got to find a suitable spot to lay low. This abandoned human factory seems likely."** Trip said as he walked forward and patted Pain on his arm. He didn't really feel like comforting him, but they were teammates, right now partners, and they had always helped one another, in battle at least. Not only did Painsplitter lose a friend, but Tripwire lost Steelwheel in the same battle that brought down Swingrig. As they started walking into the interior of the factory, Tripwire remembered Steelwheel's last words. "As I lay here waiting to meet the Well, I want to make sure you think about what your actions impact. My actions have only wrought destruction and death. I know that is not what I wanted to leave behind when I left, but it _is_ true. I caused many deaths for which I am filled with sorrow and I cannot take any of it away. I want you to think about what you want from your existence. Be a force for good. Be there for anyone who needs help. Be better."

Every time Tripwire wanted to destroy something, which, with being a Decepticon, was inevitable, he thought about what it would accomplish. And every time it would never accomplish anything more than violence. He didn't want to end up like Steelwheel, and, even though it was an honorable life, he wanted more. He wanted to be better than how his fellow Decepticons taught him to be. He wanted to get away from death and violence as much as possible. He wanted to be separated from the war. He wanted to be his own mech and this was his chance. He could stay on Earth and hide here from Megatron and any other Decepticons. He just had to figure out how to get Painsplitter to accept his decision and cover for him or maybe he would have to just leave the mech on his own.

As they stopped in front of a large, reinforced window that separates the main assembly area from the iron melting room, Tripwire searched for anything that led him to believe they were in immediate danger. Seeing no signs of enemies or threats of any kind, Tripwire sat down on a conveyor belt with a loud metallic groan from the machinery. **"We'll stay here for the end of this current solar cycle, and then we'll leave tomorrow. I'll take first watch." **He said, not looking at Painsplitter, for fear of the more battle hardened mech sensing the anguish in Tripwire's optics. Watching Painsplitter enter recharge mode, Tripwire began to plot out a plan to leave the war in the best way possible. After a few Earth minutes to evaluate all the ideas and decide which ones he could actually get away with and which ones would cause serious, unneeded harm, he finally closed his optics and spread his scanners and sensors to half so he could reduce the amount of energy he consumed. He had a plan and he had to be ready because it would start tomorrow, first thing.

As the sunlight bore down on the fields of red, orange, and yellowish-brown dirt and sand, the channel 8 news van drove over to a spot on the side of the interstate. The white van's front doors opened up. The driver stepped out with a huff as he squeezed his gut in between the steering wheel and the seat. The man looked as if he was in his late twenties and he never worked out a day in his life. He had short, almost balding, straight black hair and tan, white skin. He had a chili cheese hotdog in one hand and a 7/11 big gulp in the other. He scrunched up his face as he tried readjusting his glasses without using his hands. "Gail, how do you want to do this shot?" He said before taking another bite from the hotdog.

"Oh I don't know Billy. Maybe I do the talking and you do the camera work. How about that, huh?" The tall, tan, blonde woman said as she got out of the passenger seat. "And I thought I told you to call me Veronica." She corrected as she pulled a compact mirror from her business skirt pocket, and she proceeded to fix her makeup. Her appearance was inviting and beautiful, and it made men want to talk to her ever since she changed her body to ditch that stupid nickname from high school. She had been through a 'fat' phase and she had had long, curly brunette hair that really didn't work with her looks. So when she graduated high school, she lost the weight and fixed her hair, as well as gotten the nose job and changed her name. Now nobody would call her 'Gail the Epic Fail'. Not the best nickname, but it stuck in fifth grade.

"Oh okay. You know what's right I guess." Billy said, and with a final bite of the hotdog, he threw the wrapper into the trash can by the highway. Veronica knew that even though she had used her looks to get this reporting job instead of the more laborious assistant job, she would still be treated with some disrespect, and this slob was what that was. Billy Houser wasn't what you would call a ladies man. He was gross, obese, and he was slow. You had to explain things to him as if he were in 1st grade, and even if he didn't understand, he just went along with it so he could keep a job. He had been stuck with her for a while and now they had been sent to cover a landslide that fell in the middle of the night, and it was sweltering. The thermostat on the side of the van read ninety eight and a half.

Ever since she moved to Hale, Nevada, she has lost more sweat than she ever did when she worked out endlessly to lose that last five pounds. Her old boss in California had been threatening to fire her, but she did well enough work that he got her a job out here, but the heat was killing her curly hair. She raked a few fingers through the blonde strands as she stared at the landslide that she was supposed to report on. It looked like any other landslide, except that this one had long, dug-in trenches and everything around it looked like it had burned to a crisp. What the hell? "Um, okay, let's set up right over here. I want to catch the scene in the background while I'm talking." She said to Billy as he went to the van to grab the ten pound camera and haul it over. Getting to the spot her foot was sitting, she left him there and carefully walked over to the landslide.

The indents from the rocks were about as big as SUVs and the trails that could only be made by something crashing were about a hundred and fifty feet long. What the hell? "Hey Billy, what do you make this out to be?" She asked as Billy set the camera legs in the dirt and walked over to her. He squinted out through his thick glasses and his face resembled a scientist examining a microscope slide. Maybe he wasn't so stupid after all. "I don't know. Big rocks maybe?" He said, his face returning to normal, his mouth hanging open a little. Scratch that last comment. "Never mind, just get the camera ready to film." Veronica said, hearing the man walk away as she stared at the sky, trying to find out where the meteors came from. She knew it wasn't a landslide that caused this, but even so, she still had a segment to shoot.

Stepping over to the camera, she took the lens cap off. "Thank you Gail." Billy murmured and Veronica had to count to ten so she didn't kill the man. "Yeah, and my name is Veronica, not Gail." She corrected again, knowing that every time she did, he forgot two seconds later. He began quietly adjusting the camera angles and he made sure that he put the white, rubber pad on the ground so Veronica would know where to stand. "When should we start?" He asked after taking a sip from his big gulp. "In about twenty years would be nice." Veronica said sarcastically, but then told him about five minutes.

She walked over and used the van floor as a seat, getting the small microphone pinned to her lapel. She also put some more makeup on and ran a brush and comb through her curly blonde hair. She looked at herself in the compact mirror to check for anything that was unsightly, and she began to question where her life had been going and where it had finally gotten. She was thirty two, living in a one room apartment that smelled of tacos. She was paid a few dollars over minimum wage and she couldn't afford everything that she needed for this job, but it was still her job, so she had to succeed. She hoped that every report she did on camera was the 'one'. The 'one' that opened up to an anchorwoman position, or at least pushed her to be a more featured reporter.

She promised herself when she was twenty three that she would be on T.V. and doing something, instead of giving customers their coffees. One day she was working and a news reporter who usually came in made his order and, getting it for him, she slipped it in the sleeve. She got a call that afternoon and became the man's assistant, still getting him his coffee and such. At least she had valuable experience. After a year and a half of that, she had to contend with being replaced by a younger, prettier assistant and she left that news station and moved to a competing local news station. They finally put her on T.V. once when the normal reporter was sick. After that, viewers loved her so much that the station kept her on. She was there in L.A. until she pissed her boss off and got moved here.

Now she had to do little pieces on how one diner had a customer contest with another diner, while she interviewed loyal customers of both places, hearing the life stories of everyone. That was what she was brought down to. Just some weekend reporter, asking the hard hitting questions like, 'Which apple pie is better?' But she would be stupid to miss out on her chance to make a discovery like this. Three meteor impacts and no meteors? Who could've missed that? She was reflecting on her life when she noticed the police cruiser in her compact mirror. She got up and looked through the passenger window to get a look at the police officer.

He was pulling the car to the side of the road with one hand as he held a cup of coffee in the other. What was it with everyone here driving while drinking something? He got out of the car and straightened his baseball cap. He looked both ways before crossing the highway. As he came over, Veronica noticed he was an older man. His hair was graying and his hands shook slightly. He was a heavyset man, but it looked as if he still kept his weight under control. "How are you doing miss? I'm Sheriff Buck Lastik. I was the officer who stumbled upon our little landslide here." He said, pulling the hat off to show respect to the reporter, and to show his balding hair as well.

"Hi, Veronica Wells, channel 8 news. I don't mean to offend, but I don't think this is a landslide sheriff." Veronica said. "Okay, well I think each person is entitled to their own opinion, but I think you are wrong. I've seen many landslides in my day, and this is not something special." He said, his hat going back on his head. "No, but there's trails and burns from fires. This has to be-" She replied, but he cut her off. "Look ma'am, I'm just here to report what I saw, not to discuss what burned those bushes. Which it turns out was teenage punks lighting firecrackers. Now can we get started because I have a city to keep safe?" He stated, his brow rising in anger.

"Hey Gail-er, Veronica, we're ready to do this." Billy announced when he started walking away from the van. Seeing no point in having this discussion with a man who was needed elsewhere, Veronica motioned for the sheriff to follow her and she grabbed a portable microphone to hand to the man. "Just stand there and I'll bring the talk to you." She informed the man, putting the meteor theory up on the shelf for now, just wanting to get the interview done. She walked over to where her post was and stood there. Billy held up three fingers on his pudgy hand and counted off the fingers. "Hi, Veronica Wells here, and its 4:30 A.M. We're on the side of the road here on highway 12, where a landslide was brought down. I have here with me the officer who found the disturbance late last night. Officer, what happened?" She started with a huge smile, just quickly wrapping it up so everyone can get on with their day.

A few hundred meters across the road, at the abandoned iron factory, were the two giant, alien robots. They were hiding in the deep shadows and all that could be seen were crimson optics burning through the dark. Tripwire was standing a few yards from the bigger, crueler mech, who was always so angry. Right now the Decepticon weapon's specialist was in recharge mode, his audio sensors tuned to Tripwire's vocal pattern incase he needed to be woken from his slumber. When they had settled for the night, Painsplitter was greatly infuriated with Tripwire because of what happened and Tripwire was contemplating whether to tell Painsplitter at all about his plan to leave.

Finally deciding what to do, Tripwire turned to walk out into the sunlight. As he glanced in the direction where the humans had been around, seeing they had left completely, he started off toward the city. He knew what Painsplitter would say if he was alert to know about this. He'd say 'you're abandoning the only thing you've ever known. You won't know how to survive on your own.' All these things were true, and Tripwire knew that. But he had to try, not just for himself, but so Steelwheel could finally have some part of his life reach peace.

Walking past a few rundown apartment buildings, Tripwire knew that he was tracing the steps him and Painsplitter had taken last night. There were the rusted dumpsters that had mountains of rubble and concrete crumbling over the side. There were scraps of newspaper here and there that just kept floating around and around. He knew that he should get out of the path that the other Decepticon knew, but to do that would mean exposing himself to humans, and he was positive that even though Megatron didn't care about human life, he definitely didn't want to cause them to deactivate his fellow Cybertronians somehow. Plus Tripwire also needed an alternate mode first, something that would match his need for a quick getaway, as well as his personality.

He soon came upon the abandoned circus that the two teammates found yesterday. They had gone inside the patched and frayed tent, now full of holes and bats, when they first found it, and found a few things that intrigued them. Painsplitter had laid his sights on some kind of primitive cannon, something that seemed to use the humans as ammunition. When Painsplitter had prepared his arm blaster to destroy the weapon, Tripwire told him it was abandoned just like all the other things there, and the two pushed on. **"Why did they have to use 'human cannonballs'? They didn't have metal cannonballs?"** Painsplitter murmured to himself. **"No, that seems like it would be better."** He answered himself a second later. **"This isn't an ancient Earth armory, it's an entertainment arena."** Tripwire said, glancing at Painsplitter as the bigger mech studied everything with an analyzing optic.

The next thing they found was a room full of optical illusions. Every glance made it seem as if Tripwire resembled a femme, but others appeared to make his body similar to a heavy, slow warrior. He had just started having fun with the reflections when Tripwire's sensors picked up the high, whirring hum from Painsplitter's blaster. Then the smell of charged plasma and the soft chiming of the mirror pieces falling to the dirt ground filled the air. **"What did you do that for you aft?"** Tripwire hissed, his optics narrowing. **"I panicked. What do you want to do about it? It happened, deal with it."** He replied with his legs spread in a fighting stance and his fists clenching. **"Never mind. Let's just get out of here."** Tripwire said, trying not to provoke a fight from his more powerful partner.

On the way out, entering another room, they passed a white ring in the middle of the room. On either side of the upright ring was a ramp. The sign read 'Ring of Fire' and both 'cons walked over to investigate it. **"If they had fire, why did they need human projectiles?"** Painsplitter muttered to himself, and then he seemed to focus on something in front of him and he nodded his head. Tripwire watched this with worry, knowing the processor glitch was getting worse, and also knowing he couldn't do anything to help his longtime teammate. He quickly noticed a lever and he pulled it then hopped back. The ring suddenly burst into flames and running lights on the ramps lit up, a few of the bulbs burned out or burst apart.

**"Wow, they did fight with fire."** Painsplitter mused, before pulling out his plasma blaster and powering it up with a whir. Taking a split-second to aim, he fired off the crimson plasma bolt, hitting and fusing the fuel lines to the metal ramp, exploding a large chunk off and sending it to the corner of the small tent. The fire was so bright that they didn't register the other Cybertronian leaving the shelter of this tent for a safer one. **"Why did you do that Painsplitter?"** Tripwire asked, his foot pads frantically trying to stomp out the fire that would bring down the whole tent. **"It was going to fire at me first. I mean it was only self defense."** He growled, optics looking shamed, but not too sorry. With a final stomp on the metal ring, Tripwire lead the way out of the tents and they left.

That was just how Tripwire's life was ever since they left Cybertron behind millions of years ago. He lead the way for him and Painsplitter wherever they went, otherwise it turned out horrible. The one time that Painsplitter did choose the destination, they both ended up stuck in an otherworldly swamp that reeked of fetid water and rotten vegetation. They had spent a few months washing the caked mud and decayed fungus off of their frames. Now Tripwire decided where they go because he was the smarter, more strategic mech, while Painsplitter was stronger and more skilled in combat. They used each other to keep alive. Painsplitter kept Tripwire safe in a battle while Tripwire kept him on a path toward Megatron and the current Decepticon forces.

That was going to change though. Now Tripwire had finally realized it was time to move on to a different course. Thinking of this, Tripwire noticed that the sun was rising over the horizon and he should start finding a spot to set up as his base. He kept going until he found an abandoned warehouse, the big metal, sliding door open enough so he could walk in. He peered around and noticed the abandoned car frames, the interiors stripped and the wheels gone. There were several of these car bodies, and even a truck body, but he didn't think it would bother anyone if he stayed here until it got darker. He scanned the area around the building and found a few humans standing around and chatting amongst themselves.

He absentmindedly lost interest in them until his internal systems alerted him to the presence of weapons. These handheld projectile weapons were even more powerful it seemed than the one that the authority officer used. Searching the term on line, Tripwire learned these were known as Tec-9s and that they were fully automatic pistols. He was sure that these would cause little to no harm to himself, but against humans who bled from simply handling paper, these were a real threat. As he wondered about what these people needed protecting, he noticed that one of the humans had started firing at another, and then others had started firing.

He quickly scanned all around the fight scene and found out from the words and threats uttered, that these two groups of humans had been exchanging something and that it had gone wrong somehow. Tripwire watched the gunfight through the warehouse walls, and he soon found out what was wrong. One faction of humans had been human authority, under cover, and participating in a sting operation to catch some gang members trafficking in drugs. He searched the term 'drugs' and found out it was similar to injectable high grade energon. **'Woo, nasty stuff that high grade. It can mess up your systems if you're not careful.'** Tripwire continued watching as the gang members were all apprehended and put in cars and trucks to transport them, then all the vehicles pulled away and left.

Tripwire waited a while until he was sure that no one was watching the area anymore, and he stepped out to peer around. He saw that several of the humans had dropped their weapons and left them behind. He grabbed these and put them in his weapons hold, so no sparkling could get to it and injure them self. There were several bullet holes in the sheet metal wall and in the surrounding dumpsters and car frames. He noticed the drops of blood staining the ground and dirt rust red. He also noticed the vehicle he had first laid his scanners on, and now it was just so much more significant seen through his optics. It was a perfect blend of power, speed, and beauty. He used his scanners to copy the cars schematics and then he transformed down into his new Earth alternate mode. With a final scrape and squeal of metal sliding against metal, Tripwire took off toward the center of the city, the rear running lights shining red in the dawn.

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><p>Author Notes: Alright, so this is my second chapter and my ideas changed a lot. This is what happened when I tried writing when I only had an hour at a time to get on the computer. I hope you guys liked it and that it was a good representation of Decepticons and Transformers in general. I really liked getting into Painsplitter's processor, it was somewhat freeing.<p>

I hope I hear from you guys. I had a few people come back after seeing this story once already, so I know some of you were interested. I want reviews, but I will still try to finish this story before I forget my original ideas. Remember, reviews have families too, and what if those hardworking individuals didn't bring megabytes to the table. Yeah, think about that.

Okay, I know I have problems with due dates, but I hope to have the next chapter up sooner than this one was. Bye, Simple Confusion, Simple, or just Con.


	3. Troubles

**Author Notes:** What's up! This is the third chapter. I can't believe I was typing this up so fast. This is more of Hannah and Olivia's friendship, along with Jerome and Hannah's friendship (something more?), _but_ a Transformer is brought in at the end.

I still need reviews, but people just don't care about a review's family anymore. I hope you guys like this one. I worked non stop on this and it actually has about a thousand more words than my last ones.

I don't own Transformers, but I do own my characters and the city of Hale, Nevada.

P.S. Sorry if there really is a Hale, NV, but I don't own that one.

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><p>Transformers No Roads Left<p>

Troubles

"Hannah, what would you think if I said my parents want to have you at a barbeque this week? I mean it's not like they have so many of these you can go to, so why wouldn't you? And I don't think you'll be offended too much. It's not a lot of people, and not everyone knows your secret." Olivia said in one long breath. Hannah thought about this as they walked to work. Olivia's parents only ever invite Hannah if they have a few people coming over, not the whole neighborhood. Sometimes they even have some kind of job for her to do. They might go out of town and they'll ask if she can water the many plants that Mrs. Terrence has growing around the yard, but most of the time their friends will need a babysitter or something, and while she's happy to do it and get paid, she feels like they pitied her.

"I don't know Olivia. I mean, what do they need done now?" She asked her shorter friend as they passed the fruit stand in front of the farm grown store. "Hi Mrs. Williams." The girls both uttered when the owner waved at the two of them, tossing an apple to both of them, "Thanks Mrs. Williams" They said as they kept walking. "I don't know, but maybe they'll have an easy job for you." Olivia said, scrunching her eyebrows down. Every time Hannah went over to work for Olivia's parents or their friends, it always seemed to be some kind of home remodel and she ended up pulling multiple muscles and staying on the couch for a week. Last time she had to help dig a hole for an underground pool, but then the people changed their minds and had her and the other neighborhood kids put the dirt back.

"Yeah, no. I don't think I want to do that." Hannah said before biting into the fresh apple. "Okay, I'll just tell them you're not going." Olivia said with a smirk. "What? No, I'll go; I just don't want to be made out as cheap labor." She replied in a pleading way. "Sorry, my parents specifically said that you had to be able to work for one of their friends. So I guess you'll be stuck missing out on the baby back ribs, and the roasted chicken breast that will have my dad's special seasoning. But it's your loss, I guess." Olivia said, her smirk growing even more devilish. Ever since Hannah had moved to Hale, she had jumped at every chance to go to a famous Terrence barbeque, even insisting they start having one for the first day of summer.

Olivia's mother would make all sorts of salads and sides, even baking mozzarella cheese into rolls and sprinkling pepper flakes on them to give it spice. Olivia's father would be at the grill most of the time, but he made it an event when he did this, tossing the steaks and burgers high in the air to show off. He would season the meats with some kind of herb, and then cover it with a tangy, citrus barbeque glaze. He was a professional chef so he had all kinds of skills like burning wine in sauce to make it refreshing. Everything at these parties was great, even the conversation. Nobody looked down on you for what you said, and no one shunned you because of where you're from or what you did.

But it had started getting a little uncomfortable for Hannah ever since other people had found out about her problem. And by 'a little uncomfortable', I mean it was unbearable. When Olivia's parents found out about Hannah's mother leaving, they had insisted on helping her out whenever. And for the first few months, everything was fine. Hannah and Olivia were great roommates; only needing help with rent every other month, and only then just $75. But then one barbeque was different and Mr. and Mrs. Terrence's friends were being apologetic and Hannah heard the middle of a conversation that just seemed to abruptly stop when she was noticed. Confronting Olivia, Hannah demanded to know what happened, so Olivia took her by the arm and led her into the garage, which was soundproof and out of the way from the party. She explained to Hannah that her parents had been at a neighborhood party and accidentally spilled the truth, maybe a little embellished by the more than acceptable quantities of liquor they had.

After having a discussion with the people she had counted as her extra parents for so long, she left the party and the only ones she did go to were almost pity parties. The guests were gloomy and they all felt like they had to step on eggshells whenever they said anything about money...or family...or anything. It was when she had stepped out to get a breath of fresh air that she noticed some teenage girl from the party standing near her. The girl was probably sixteen just like Hannah, and she had long, wavy blonde hair and beautiful tan skin. She also had designer clothes and shoes on, as well as manicured fingernails and toenails. The girl saw her and started talking to her about how lame the party was and that maybe it would be better once the 'girl with money problems' would leave. Hannah instantly knew the girl was talking about her, but apparently the girl didn't see the fury in Hannah's eyes, because the full bodied tackle that she delivered knocked the girl out cold.

When the girl's parents came out to see what happened, they blamed Hannah's 'money problems' as the reason she tackled their daughter, probably planning on kidnapping the spoiled brat for a ransom. Yeah, right. Like anyone would want that stick figure back, except maybe to sweep their driveway. Immediately after the rich parents rant about crime taking root in poor families, the Terrences' all came out to defend their longtime friend, but it was too late. The damage was done and Hannah was being ridiculed for something her mother had done by leaving Hannah for some guy she was dating. Hannah ran away from all of them, straight down the street towards the sunset. With the blood roaring in her ears and her tennis shoes slapping on the ground so hard, Hannah couldn't hear Olivia calling her name as she followed her. Her eyes were welling with tears and she tried to stop them from falling, but it was in failure.

She had stopped finally, fifteen minutes later, at a school playground. When Olivia walked over and sat in the swing next to her, she was sure her best friend could see the water running down her cheeks and her soaked neckline. "What...want?" She huffed, too breathless to make any real sentences. After taking a few deep breaths, Hannah started over again. "What do you want?" She asked with an edge of warning in her voice. "Nothing much, just wanted to know why you NFLed that girl." Olivia said with a hint of humor. "Oh why, did you want to join me in my plan to squeeze a few shiny pennies from those people? Because I really had a plan in my head, just like that lady said. It was real thought out and evil, almost diabolical with its genius." Hannah said, a raggedness building in her throat from breathing through her mouth while she ran. "Yeah, no. But I have no doubt that you could make a wonderful kidnapping, get the ransom, then go to Mexico and open your own taco stand, but you might have some competition. I mean, do you know how many people make their own tacos over there." She replied, and both girls suddenly giggled.

"So my parents made everyone go home and they promised to invite you over for a 'just us' party, if you'd like I mean." Olivia started when they both caught their breaths after a few moments of laughing. "Yeah, I'd like that. Maybe next week we can do that." Hannah suggested, looking at the playground's blue, hard plastic slide to hide the weakness in her eyes. "So what happened anyway?" Olivia asked finally, watching Hannah keep moving her head. "She started it. And besides, you probably already made up your mind." Hannah spat, knowing it might hurt Olivia, but she needed to lash out at5 something. "No, if I wanted to hear what happened from that girl, I would have asked for the untrue version. I'm asking you what happened." She said, grabbing her friend's shoulder and squeezing it, making Hannah feel horrible for what she just said.

"Do you know why I came here Olivia?" Hannah asked, not really wanting to aggravate her quickly worsening throat, but this had to be said. "This swing set was where we first met back in second grade. You were playing tag and I was swinging, but then my feet knocked you over, you got mad at me. And then when you tried to punch me, you hit 'Ski cap Meg' and she swung at you." Hannah explained before Olivia took over. "Yeah, and you pushed me down to help me dodge and then you kicked her in the shins. But she started chasing you and so I grabbed a dodge ball and threw it in her face." She squealed, clutching her sides as she busted into laughter. "We got into so much trouble that we got suspended for a week. And we thought it was a reward for getting rid of the evil." She said, finally stopping enough to calm down. "Man who thought a nose could bleed so much?" Hannah asked, still giggling.

"What about it though?" Olivia asked. "That was when we became best friends and we promised to look out for each other since then." Hannah replied, knowing it was something that they would never give up, even if they moved away. "Yeah, and now here we are, walking back to my house with sore throats, feet, and I'm pretty sure I broke a rib or two laughing." Olivia said, nodding her head and grinning. "But I wouldn't have it any other way." She finished. They both got up from the swing set and limped back the direction they came from. The sun was almost gone and the mosquitoes were biting at their arms and legs, but it was a perfect summer night that they couldn't have asked for any better. Stepping over a large rock in the lawn they were walking through, Olivia asked the question she had originally followed Hannah in order to ask her. "Why did you NFL the girl?" "Oh okay, well since we have a long walk and no radio to play, listen up, 'cause I'm not repeating this to your parents." Hannah said, starting into what happened.

Now a few months later and Olivia still got questions from that girl's parents about assault charges. "No, I don't think so." Hannah answered Olivia's question on whether she'd want to come to a barbeque. "S'okay, I understand." She replied, taking the last bite from her apple and tossing into a garbage can they were passing. Hannah had been thinking a lot about that night lately, not really about the barbeque, but what they said at the playground. If Olivia really was her best friend and they were supposed to pull together no matter what, then she should tell her about the chop shop and the arrest. "Hey, where's Jerome? He should be here by now, shouldn't he?" Olivia commented just when Hannah had worked up enough courage to confess, but then she decided it could wait. "I don't know. Maybe he's stuck in traffic?" She suggested with a smile. "He doesn't have a car." Olivia corrected her.

It was a minute later when Jerome finally showed. Jerome Bradley was a muscular teenager with shoulder length, brunette braids that matched his light, coffee colored skin. He was a well built young man that could fight off five guys at once, so Hannah was surprised when she noticed the rips on the sleeves of his white, short sleeved button up shirt. Next she noticed the sweat and blood marks on his black t-shirt. She also noticed his busted lip that was bleeding slightly. The last thing she noticed was the handle of the pocket knife in his hand, trying to hide it from Olivia because she didn't know about the gang turf feud. "Oh my gosh! What happened to you Jerome? You look like-" Olivia started with a loud voice, but she was interrupted by Hannah. "You don't look that bad man." She offered, but she glared sternly at her Olivia to shut up. Leaning forward, Hannah grabbed the knife and pocketed it. "Now what happened to you? Did you die?" Olivia asked, reaching a hand up to Jerome's shoulder. "I was running late and when I got out of my house, I slipped on my brother's skateboard and fell on the lawnmower my dad left out. It's no big deal, really." He confessed with a light voice.

"Oh okay, then." Olivia said, not noticing the worried looks on Hannah's face. "So what's going on today Jerome?" Hannah asked to try to distract herself from the question trying to drill out of her mind and scream out. "Not much, I got to get to the yard and after that, I have to get to the DMV to get my license." He said with a huge smile on his face and his shoulders rolled back to give him a smug look before he groaned in pain. Jerome was 19 years old, and like Hannah, he dropped out of high school when his older brother had died and his mom was left without enough money to pay bills. So Jerome dropped out and, with the connections from his neighborhood friend, joined the chop shop to make money. He had been holding off getting his license because he needed to help around with the bills and payments. Now he had finally saved up enough to get a decent car and fix it up, but he was still hesitant about it, thinking it was too much responsibility when he got a car.

"This is my turn you two. Bye Hannah, see you later." Olivia said walking down the street her work was on. Waving goodbye as they watched Olivia walk away, Jerome and Hannah kept walking down Richmond Street, toward the auto yard. "So whose turf were you on this time Jerome?" Hannah asked as she dug her hand into her red drawstring backpack for the bandages she knew she kept just for this reason. The city they live in is full of gangs that have claimed parts as their own, and the auto yard was branded as the base of one gang, so rival gangs will periodically start a fight with the people associated with the yard. Even if they weren't part of any gang. So Hannah, Jerome, and a few other 'innocent' people had to carry some weapon, out of necessity, because they had already had to drop someone off at the hospital's entrance, and run away out of fear of being sent to jail. "Did you have your gun?" Hannah asked Jerome, knowing it wouldn't have gotten this bad if he had had his semi automatic pistol. As he lifted up the left side of his black t-shirt, Hannah had to wince and gasp at the sight of the shallow, six inch cut that almost reached his belly button. "What happened really?" Hannah smirked as she went to work laying strip bandages across the cut.

"I was on my way here when I took that shortcut through the construction zone. You know the one with the office building they've been trying to put up for five years now." He started explaining while he sucked quick breaths through his teeth. The building he was talking about was a trashed idea on how to make more jobs in the city, but they didn't have enough money to finish. Now the building's frame was used to hide drug traffickers and homeless people. There were several of these construction projects, including some out by the old iron factory. "The South Crew was there and they pulled out their chains and switchblades, some even had their 'patented' lead pipes. I held them off fine enough, but I did get cut and chased. I even had to hide for a few minutes in the dirt bucket of one of those yellow diggers. No one found me so I ran and finally caught up to you two." He said, finishing with a groan as he breathed in fresh air and it pulled on the knife cut. "I'm happy you're safe, but you never answered my question about the gun. Where is it?" She asked, pointing her finger in his face, threatening to poke him menacingly.

"It's at my house, its fine." He said as he pushed her hand down and stopped in front of the doughnut shop, opening the door. "What are you doing?" Hannah asked, staring at him as if he had grown a second head. "I wasn't covering when I said I woke up late. I'm hungry and it's my treat." He said as he grabbed her hand and pulled her into the store. They waited in line and soon enough it was their turn to order. "Hi, one banana cream filled and one maple bar. Oh! And don't forget the hot chocolates with extra whipped cream." He asked, watching Hannah's face for any acknowledgement of any wrong orders. He handed the cash and they grabbed their food and walked over to the seats. "We do this too much, you know that?" She told him as they sat at a booth by the window. "What, no we don't. Okay, maybe three times a week, but I can afford it, don't worry." He comforted her, chuckling when she had whipped cream on the tip of her nose. "What?" She demanded before seeing the white speck. "Oh yeah, I like to dive right in." She said and Jerome chuckled harder.

They sat there talking about how they both quit high school in order to get a full time job and pay rent and utilities. Back when Hannah had been going to school, her, Olivia, and Jerome were best friends, and even though he was three school years ahead of them, he still made it a point to sit with them at lunch. But then when his older brother had died, he dropped out right away. Of course, his anger and grieving made him unresponsive to anyone's questions, so nobody knew why he left. It was finally a few months later when Hannah had first been out of the house she had grown up in for ten years and she got in touch with Jerome again when she was looking for work. He had actually been in the middle of stealing a Buick with some partner when she saw him. She had jumped into the car when the cops showed up and chased them downtown. They had lost the cruiser and Jerome kept pushing to drop Hannah off somewhere, but the partner didn't want to mess with the gang leader's time, and they ended up bringing her along. When Hannah was offered a spot at the yard, she quickly accepted so she could keep an eye out for Jerome, who looked like he had been beaten pretty badly. Little did she know that was just from the other gangs picking fights with him.

As they were talking, someone came up to the window and started knocking on it. They turned around and saw Bryan, one of their friends at the yard who wasn't part of the gang. He motioned for them to come outside, so they finished their breakfast and walked out. "What's up Bryan?" Jerome asked as they all started walking west toward the auto yard. "Man I told you my name's Bri-man. Why don't you ever get that right?" He pleaded, looking sincerely into Jerome's eyes. "Because you ain't Batman. That's why _Bryan_." Hannah said before hiding behind Jerome. "Hey quit it you two. What's going on Bryan?" Jerome asked, holding Hannah's shoulder and pulling her away from Bryan. "I just found out Anthony wants me to go to the better side of town and find a real slice of heaven in a Mercedes. You two want to come with? Hannah's one of the best door hacker's we got, not counting Ernie." Bryan said, his eyes darting from Jerome's and Hannah's eyes quickly. "Well-" Hannah started, but Bryan already cut her off, "Great, let's go. I know a shortcut." "No!" Both Jerome and Hannah yelled out, causing the old lady that walked passed to give an accusing look and then she shushed them.

They finally got to the gated community that Anthony had wanted them to browse from, with Bryan grumbling about how much faster shortcuts were compared to streets. "They have video cameras you guys!" Bryan said before he ran and hid behind some bushes. Jerome quickly grabbed Bryan's shoulder and yanked him in front of the stone wall, then they both got down on one knee and put their hands together, palms facing upward. "Come on Hannah. We'll hoist you up and then Bryan can lift me over." Jerome said, using his hand to motion for Hannah to step up. "What about me?" Bryan whined, his voice irritating to the ears. "You will stay and keep watch for any cops, understand?" Jerome ordered, the authority clear in his voice. "Got it! Okay." Bryan said, holding up his hands in surrender. They quickly got over the fence and hid behind the nearest garage, trying to gauge whether anyone saw them or not. "You guys okay over there?" Bryan yelled out, causing the big dog in the garage to bark loudly and continuously at Hannah and Jerome.

Both of them ran across the street to hide behind a new house, but they were spotted by the owners. "Oh no you kids don't. We don't want you two to use our Jacuzzi again. Last time someone did that, we had to get it cleaned with chemicals. No, nuh uh." The lady said, shooing the two away with waves of her hands. "They think we're here to grab a soak? This will be cake." Hannah said while she clutched her red bag to her side and pulled out the lock pick kit she carried around with her. They walked on down the street, looking at the nice, valuable houses that seemed to need renovations every two months. Every lawn was a healthy green color, unlike the apartments that Hannah and Olivia lived at, that had yellow clumps here and there, while the rest of the yard was bare. The trees were all a pretty green color and full of leaves. Every house had a balcony and a huge porch, which most families chose to adorn with swings or hammocks, but some had a simple outdoor furniture set. Most houses were painted blandly, just a one or two color pattern, but one was really cool. It had been painted by throwing water balloons full of different colored paints at the house. All these houses looked like the ones her and Olivia used to live at with their parents before they moved out and on their own.

As they walked along looking for a nice ride to take back to the auto yard, Hannah started to think about the day when she found out her mom had left her alone with no way to take care of herself. She had been studying for winter finals all week, staying up later than normal just so she could go through all the notes at least once more, when Olivia called and suggested they go to the movies and see the new romantic comedy. Hannah had told her mom about it and she said it was fine, even giving her some money to spend for popcorn. She said have a good time, and Hannah left and went to the movies. "That was a great movie. I can't believe they showed his 'thing' in there. They can't do that in a PG-13 movie, can they?" Hannah laughed as they walked out the theater doors, squinting to keep the sun out of her eyes. "That's because that was a Rated R movie Hannah. Don't you remember me telling you? I swear I told you." Olivia said casually as she skipped ahead of her, up some stairs and finally jumped over the stair railing to declare 'I'm Batman!'" "Yeah, no. And where do you get all this energy from?" Hannah asked as they walked down the street to their neighborhood. "I was granted the gift of eternal energy when I was born."

It had been late in the day that Olivia offered to go to the movies with Hannah, and the sky was getting pretty dark, but they kept walking home. They would not call their parents no matter what. It was a game they played. See how late they could stay out and see their parents' reaction when they got in at five minutes to midnight. But it wasn't a night for 'Are you afraid of the dark?', because Olivia's house was coming up on the right. "I'll see you tomorrow. Remember not to stay up too late studying." Olivia said as she gave her best friend a hug goodbye. "See ya." Hannah said as she turned around and kept on walking to her house. The street lights were already on and burning bright enough to capture a few moths in their blaze. There was a white cat standing on the sidewalk and Hannah knelt to pet it. She continued on when the cat walked off, probably wanting food. Only a few cars were passing now and then, probably people going home because this street wasn't a main connector to the next neighborhood over. The moon was in the sky, but it was still low on the horizon, and Hannah could only see the top third sticking up over the trees.

As she came into sight with her house, she noticed the porch light was off and the screen door was closed. Usually when Hannah was gone for the night, her mom would leave the light on, and sometimes, but not all the time, she would stay up and wait for her out in the porch chair. Hannah walked quicker before she ran home when she didn't see her mom's red station wagon sitting in the driveway. She dashed up the steps, tripping and stumbling on the fifth step, and she reached for the doorknob. After trying to turn it and not succeeding, she threw her hand into her pocket and pulled out the key ring. She grabbed the right one, the key with Dorothy's red slippers on it, and she jammed it into the door lock so hard, she was afraid she would break it. Opening the door a moment later, she was stunned at what she found.

Nothing. All the furniture was moved out and all that was left in the living room was the coffee table with the empty bowl of cereal her mother had eaten for breakfast. She was always more lenient about things like putting dishes in the sink or picking clothes up off the floor. Now there wasn't even one blouse on the floor and Hannah found that more disconcerting than everything else gone. She walked in a daze to the kitchen, not really noticing the stove ripped from it's holder brackets in the wall, or the refrigerator that became invisible, or even the dishwasher that was wide open and missing all the shelves for dishes. Hannah continued to the sink, where a sticky note was sitting on the faucet spout. "Blake and I have gone to Wyoming. I'm going to live on a ranch with horses! Food is in the cupboards." What! Hannah turned to the cupboards and flung the door open, and the glass window in the next cupboard door accidentally broke and fell out of the pane. There was a box of pop tarts, and a stack of energy bars. That is some real satisfying food right there. She backed up and ran upstairs.

Upon reaching the top of the staircase, she took note of the muddy footprints on the carpeted floor. One set was bigger than her mother's, while her mother's were scattered around as well. She ran to the bathroom and opened all the shelves and cabinets, counting the band aids and first aid supplies because in a situation like this where she had to rely on herself, she liked to know what she was dealing with. She ran to her mother's room and found the impression in the beige carpet where the queen sized bed used to be. There was no dresser, and the trunk that sat in front of the bed was gone too. She looked in the closet and found one shoe with a hole in the toes. There were three hangers sitting on the rack, one with a swimsuit that her mother wasn't going to need in Wyoming, and the last two hangers had old, patchy looking jeans with holes all over them. Hannah ran to her room and was surprised to find all her things in there, what with her mother and Blake rushing around in the few hours she was gone at the movies. She thought her whole room would be gone, left with a gaping hole that overlooked the backyard.

She ran downstairs again and saw the phone sitting on its answering machine base on the floor; the little red light was blinking with a message. She rushed over and pressed the play button. "Hey baby. I know I left a note, but I didn't want you to worry. I'm leaving the house to you and taking an early retirement." Her mother's recorded voice said before she giggled and told Blake to stop it. "I'm not going to be back for a while, if ever, and I wanted you to know I love you, and look me up on Facebook. I'll be ranchparker2. See you when I see you." Her mother finally finished with a giggle fit and hung up. Tears welled in Hannah's eyes as she fumbled in her pocket for her cell phone. She finally popped it open, but she forgot that she had the number on speed dial, so she started trying to dial, and her eyes were so blurry she got the number for a Chinese takeout place and hung up. She wiped the tears that were building up and she pressed number one. "Hey, get tired of studying already?" When Olivia's voice rang through the earpiece, the tears finally plunged down Hannah's cheeks. She started to talk, but all that came out was a choked sob, that barely passed the lump in her throat. Working her courage and her jaw, she finally got it out intelligibly, well at least as much as two best friends needed. "We'll be right there, don't worry!" Olivia said in one split second and hung up.

Five minutes later and Hannah rose to answer the door with a small smile that bordered on the insane, and her eyes were puffy and a little wet still from all the tears. She opened the door and was greeted by her best friend body checking her in something that could be thought of as a hug, although it hurt way worse. "Ow! What was that for?" Hannah demanded when Olivia finally let up enough for her to sit up. "I was trying to distract you with pain. All the best athletes use pain to distract them from the stress and pressure. Did it work?" Olivia asked as she stuck a hand out and pulled Hannah to her feet. "No, but it did make me want to hit you back." She said bunching her fists up. Taking a step out of Hannah's reach, she finally noticed the absence of everything. "Whoa! Let's do cart wheels!" She uttered and before Hannah knew what was happening, her best friend was five years old again and spinning on her hands and feet throughout the living room and dining room. Even though it made her mad more than it made her smile, Hannah couldn't hold it against Olivia. It was just how she got rid of bad thoughts and tried to make others feel better. Hannah looked out the door and saw Olivia's mom's white Honda and she told Olivia to come on. They both got in the backseat of the car and Olivia's mom said "Don't worry, we'll let you live at our place until you can get on your feet." Hannah hated her mother more and more with every second that things got worse, but she knew she would never harbor any negative feelings towards these people.

Back in the present, Hannah had just seen the best car that she could have ever wanted. It was a metallic blue 2010 Ford Mustang with silver racing stripes on the hood and roof, and white lines underneath the doors, Hannah had always had a thing for muscle cars. It all started back when her mother had found one of the more decent boyfriends in L.A. He had a nice cherry red Pontiac GTO with a loud engine that purred deliciously when it was in first gear. The car was not the best thing about this guy though. He took care of Hannah and helped her with her homework when she got old enough to need help. He also made great casseroles that would have rivaled Martha Stewart's. He was like the perfect dad, always friendly and nice, but he didn't hover. And he had a life of his own where he would take his car to the garage and work on it for hours at a time. He was the perfect dad, and Hannah's mother had missed out on her chance to get him. Whenever Hannah saw a muscle car, she thought of the times when they would all go out and have fun like a family.

As Hannah stopped and stared at the Mustang, Jerome started talking, but his voice was fading more and more, although if it was from her daydreaming or him still walking away, she knew not. She slowly walked forward until she was ten feet from the car, not courageous enough to step any closer for fear of her smudging it's magnificence. "Hannah, did you hear me?" Jerome said as he came walking over to her and the car. "Wha" She started to say, but she couldn't really bother herself with using full words right now. "I said we have to find a nice enough car that Anthony will let us slide on the rest of the days take. But I think you found one." He said as reached a hand over to her chin and pushed it up, closing her mouth. "No! We can't take this car. He's so wonderful and handsome." Hannah almost yelled. Neither Jerome nor Hannah noticed the slight tremble of the Mustang frame, or the small sigh that came from the car's engine. "Come on we need a great ride to take back with us." Jerome said as he stared into her eyes with his own unwavering set of grey eyes.

"Fine, but if Anthony says bring it back, I go for a joyride and take Muscles out on the highway. Okay?" She said, pointing to the Mustang while she and Jerome had a staring contest of sorts. No one noticed the car frame stiffening or the low hum. "Alright, but it's so sweet that I don't think you'll get that chance." He said, finally blinking to soothe his eyes. They both walked over to the driver's door and Hannah knelt down, unfolding her lock pick kit while Jerome stood guard and watched for anybody around. The car wasn't in a driveway, but rather on the corner of the street. The passenger side doors were facing out toward the street while the driver's side, and the two thieves, were three feet from a wooden fence and a tall row of hedges. The weeping willow that was growing behind the fence had its long, wispy branches blanketing the car and the teens. At the front of the car were two garbage cans that were left over from the trash collectors. If somebody happened to look over from any angle except from beside the trunk, they would only see the powerful car draped in tree branches.

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><p><strong>Author Notes:<strong> So how'd you like it? I thought I should build Hannah's and Olivia's friendship more than what it was. It also helped to add some realness to it all. I wanted to get into how much Jerome and Hannah like each other, but I was saving that for the next chapter (where we find out who the Mustang is, or we find out who the Cybertronian with blue eyes is). Also I wanted to show how much Hannah has had to go through.

I know you guys read more than my first chapter, so I want some criticism. Please yell at me already! Anything? **Fine!**

Please? Okay... (Walks away with his head held high with dignity...and because he is stupid and doesn't look where he's-Ow)

Alright, so I've started on the next chapter, but I don't know if it will be updated as fast as this one. Tune in next time for a new episode, but until then. Bye, Simple Confusion, Simple, or just Con.


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